diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/issue-2979 b/changelog/unreleased/issue-2979
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..456e2901c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/issue-2979
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+Bugfix: Make snapshots --json output [] instead of null when no snapshots
+
+Restic previously output `null` instead of `[]` for the `--json snapshots`
+command, when there were no snapshots in the repository. This caused some
+minor problems when parsing the output, but is now fixed such that `[]` is
+output when the list of snapshots is empty.
+
+https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/2979
+https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/2984
diff --git a/cmd/restic/cmd_snapshots.go b/cmd/restic/cmd_snapshots.go
index d49e254ec..cc58479c2 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/cmd_snapshots.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/cmd_snapshots.go
@@ -298,7 +298,7 @@ type SnapshotGroup struct {
 // printSnapshotsJSON writes the JSON representation of list to stdout.
 func printSnapshotGroupJSON(stdout io.Writer, snGroups map[string]restic.Snapshots, grouped bool) error {
 	if grouped {
-		var snapshotGroups []SnapshotGroup
+		snapshotGroups := []SnapshotGroup{}
 
 		for k, list := range snGroups {
 			var key restic.SnapshotGroupKey
@@ -330,7 +330,7 @@ func printSnapshotGroupJSON(stdout io.Writer, snGroups map[string]restic.Snapsho
 	}
 
 	// Old behavior
-	var snapshots []Snapshot
+	snapshots := []Snapshot{}
 
 	for _, list := range snGroups {
 		for _, sn := range list {